Mother Maria

TheotokosJoy of All Who SorrowWith Kopeks

Elizaveta (Mother Maria) with her children (from left) Iuri, Nastia, Gaiana

Nastia as she lay ill, drawn by her mother

…the gates have suddenly opened onto eternity, all natural life has trembled and collapsed, yesterday’s laws have been abolished, desires have faded, meaning has become meaningless, and another incomprehensible Meaning has grown wings on their back… This is how the mystery of death has touched the hearts of the loving and intimate ones. Everything flies into the open black maw of the fresh grave: hopes, plans, calculations, and, above all, meaning, the meaning of a whole life.

This is what is meant by the saying, “the Lord has visited us.” How? By grief? By more than grief: He has suddenly revealed the true essence of things…

For years I did not know, in fact I never knew the meaning of repentance, but now I am aghast at my own insignificance… At Nastia’s side I feel that my soul has meandered down back alleys all my life. And now I want an authentic and a purified road, not out of faith in life, but in order to justify, understand and accept death… No amount of thought will ever result in any greater formulation than the three words, ‘Love one another,’ so long as it is [love] to the end and without exceptions. And then the whole of life is illumined, which is otherwise an abomination and a burden.

I became aware of a new and special, broad and all-embracing motherhood. I returned from that cemetery a different person. I saw a new road before me and a new meaning in life… to be a mother for all, for all who need maternal care, assistance or protection.

Mother Maria’s home of charity at 77 rue de Lourmel

The Chapel at rue de Lourmel(in a former stable)

Mother Maria of the Open Door

Embroidered Icon byMother Maria of the Theotokos of Tenderness

Icon of the Epiphany embroidered by Mother Maria

Fr. Dimitri

Iuri Skobtsov

M. Maria at camp

The four Holy MartyrsSt. George (Iuri Skobstsov)St. Maria (Skobtsova)St. Dimitri (Klepinin)St. Ilya (Fondaminsky)

The canonization in Paris

Orthodox pilgrims commemorate Mother Mariaand the other victims at Ravensbruck camp

The Mother of God in Her resurrected and glorified Body is already the perfected glory of the world, its resurrection. She is an all perfected creation ultimately deified in theosis- God begetting, God-bearing, God-receiving—and therefore she is a spiritual focal point for all mankind, for all creation. And The Mother of God is the glory of the world, a world glorified in God and of God, and in itself possessing and giving birth to God.

Motherhood is drawn along the Son’s path and as it were co-lives the Son’s path. In regard to sonship, motherhood is passive and cannot make the decisions. It only shares in the sonship’s decisions. The freely chosen suffering of the Son becomes for the Mother a suffering not freely chosen, but rather inevitably accepted. Motherhood is not active, but always responsive to the activity of sonship.

As the Mother of Godmanhood- the Church- she is pierced even now by this suffering of the Body of Christ, the suffering of each member of this Body. In other words, all the countless crosses that mankind takes upon its shoulders to follow Christ also become countless swords eternally piercing her maternal heart. She continues to co-participate, co-feel, and co-suffer with each human soul, as then on Golgotha. That is foremost. And in this sense she always walks with us on our own way of the cross, she is always there beside us; each of our crosses is a sword for her.

This image is the great symbol of any genuine relation to man;in the Crucified she saw both God and her son, and by that she teaches us to see God- that is, the image of God- in every brotherin the flesh of the Son of Man, who is also a son we adopt through our love, our compassion, our participation in his suffering, our bearing of his sins and lapses….we find in her a sure and true path that tells us to receive in our hearts the crosses of our brothers, to be pierced by them as by a weapon that pierces the soul.

The first founder of the deed of love teaches us the humble acceptance of these other crosses. She calls every Christian soul to repeat tirelessly after her: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord,” even to shedding one’s own blood, even to feeling as if a sword has pierced one’s heart. This is the measure of love; this is the limit to which the human soul should aspire. We can even say that this is the only proper relation of one person to another. Only when one’s soul takes up another person’s cross, his doubts, his grief, his temptations, falls, sins- only then is it possible to speak of a proper relation to another. 

M. Maria with (from left) Ilya Fondaminsky,Fr. Dimitri,And her son Iuri (George) At the foot of the Cross

Icon of Theotokos with Holy Child on the CrossBy Mother Maria

Icon of Mother Maria Holding her Icon of Theotokos with Child On the Cross